Only the Good Die Young

 When you're a kid, you have no real concept of death or how people deal with it. You imagine that we all live an incredibly long life and eventually go peacefully in our sleep or something along those lines. With the technological advances available today, you fully expect people to live even longer than they did even thirty years ago.

Sadly, reality isn't that kind. Death is undefeated, always has been, and always will be for eternity. Age plays no part in it.

Sadly, I came to realize this again when a friend of mine suddenly passed away at the end of last week. I knew he'd been battling against leukemia but he didn't seem like things were dire.

The last time I spoke to him was two weeks ago. We're in the same fantasy football league (I'm the commissioner) and he'd just paid me his league dues for the season. Since our draft is Labor Day weekend and he always spends the weekend out of town with his family, I knew he probably wouldn't be there. So, I started teasing him saying, "so, are you actually coming to the draft in person this year, for once?" It was then he told me about his leukemia diagnosis. Despite battling the disease since May, he stated that "I have the best doctors around. I should be good. I should beat this." I wished him well in his fight and also, jokingly, told him that I wouldn't take it easy on him during the season. The last thing he ever said to me was "lol it is on."

Fast forward to last week.

I'd been spending the night out with friends when I got a message from a mutual friend and fellow member of our league. He told me to message him right away. I figured he was either going to give me an excuse on why he hadn't paid his dues yet or even that he had to step away from the league this year or something like that.

Instead, he dropped the bomb on me that our friend had lost his battle to leukemia. To say that I was shocked would be an understatement.

Now, as hard as it was for me to hear the news after my last interaction with him, the news hit our mutual friend hard. The two of them had grown up together, they were the best of friends, and he was having trouble hiding his emotions on the phone.

While I'm able to mentally process the situation a little bit better today (it took a weekend full of traveling and hanging out with friends to get back to a sense of normalcy), I still think I'm in a state of shock over it. Not only because of my last conversation with him but also just because of how young he was. My friend was only 42 when he passed away last week.

Sadly, this isn't the first time a friend or acquaintance of mine has passed away young. Or even the closest friend.

My best friend I ever had while growing up was 23. He was hosting a housewarming party in honor of the first house he was able to afford on his own (since his parties usually involved heavy drinking and drug use, he didn't invite me since he knew that wasn't my scene). At some point during the night, he wound up passed out in the parking lot. Two women who were leaving ran him over. Not only did they leave immediately but so did many of the party guests since lots of them were under age. My best friend succumbed to his injuries in the arms of his cousin.

Another of my friends from high school died before he reached 30 due to a car accident. He was going up over a high crest in the road and a tractor trailer traveling at a high rate of speed was there to meet him. They struck head on. My friend died instantly.

Another guy with whom I grew up and was a few years young than me also died from a car accident a few years ago. I had lost contact with him for several years and never got the full details on what happened to him.

Another former high school classmate passed away by the time he was 25 due to a drug overdose. It was no secret in high school that he was into drugs. People would see him snorting a white powder during study hall but wouldn't say anything about it. He was a good enough guy and nobody wanted him to get into trouble. Unfortunately, he developed a habit for harder and harder drugs as he got older; eventually focusing on black tar heroin. One night, it was just too much for him.

Another of my high school friends who was only a year or two younger died last year. He was part of our main group who would wrestle all the time on our trampolines growing up. He had a scrawnier frame than a lot of us, which would lead to him sustaining chronic musculoskeletal injuries. His doctor wound up prescribing him heavy doses of oxycodone. As you can imagine, he got addicted to those and found ways to get them and take them long after prescribed. When the oxy stopped working as he needed it (and when it became very difficult to find), he turned his attention to other, harder drugs. This would then lead to a life of crime as he'd been caught stealing guns the year before his death. His intentions were to steal them, sell them and use the money to buy more drugs. He hadn't been out of jail on bail for long when he got his hands on something and suffered an overdose.

That makes six people that I knew and cared about who didn't make it to their 50th birthday. And those are just the ones growing up with whom I was either friends or somewhat close.

I also know that I'm not alone in this. Many of us have lost people well before their time. And I'm sure we will all continue to do so.

There's no real answer for it. Like I said, death is undefeated. We don't get a choice in when it's our time to go.

All I can say is to enjoy the time you spend with your friends, families, acquaintances, partners, spouses and all over loved ones. You just never know how much time you'll have to enjoy them until they're gone.